The hiking today was very pleasant along Cameron Creek. We crossed the creek several times on bridges made out of fallen trees. As usual, we’ve got too much weight on our backs. We are going to have to make some gear decisions if we plan to go on longer hikes in the future. What made the hike even more pleasant was the date—today is our 5 year anniversary.
On an even brighter note, we are getting better in the mornings. We were on the trail by 9:30 today shaving an entire hour off of our normal start time. We’re not really too concerned about getting out of camp quickly because we don’t plan on any long days of hiking. The way we’ve got the itinerary laid out we only need to average 6-8 miles/day. So that means we can have cooked breakfasts every day using my BioLite stove (which is pretty fun to use, but requires constant attention). We have hot drinks at most meals so we usually boil a couple liters every time we fire up the stove. This is a definite luxury that we wouldn’t get every day on a real thru-hike.
We passed another shelter after we had been hiking about 5 miles from three forks camp. Not too long after that, we ran into a young couple that were in a little trouble (but they were handling it). I still feel guilty for not helping them, but they were not too smart to begin with. They were out with another couple and they had gotten separated because they changed their plans. The guy looked like a Sherpa carrying two packs totaling 150# of gear. He’d walk about 200 yards and then take a break. While he was resting, the girl would hike ahead and pick the next break spot then come back and prod him on. This was their first (and my guess last) hiking trip together. They came down grand pass and the girl had tweeked her knee. Small wonder, she only weighed 90 pounds and was carrying a 65 pound pack.
Since their plan was to make it to a shelter and then eventually out by the day after tomorrow, we thought they were doing ok, considering. I thought they would go to the shelter we just passed and then stop for the day—if they would rest up for a while, she might be able to carry a smaller load (20-30#) and let him carry the rest. Why they had so much to begin with I can’t imagine. I’m sure they had an expresso machine in there being the yuppy types. It was already late afternoon.
We only hiked another 1.5 miles before we called it a day. The sun was disappearing from the lower valley where we were hiking. Our itinerary called for us to wild camp before Cameron Pass tonight. With it getting darker and a section of woods ahead of us, we decided to stop on the side of a hill where someone had already camped previously (or maybe it was grass flattened out by deer). We set up camp on a slight incline, cooked, filtered water, brushed teeth and went to bed. We were worn out being old flatlanders.
It got dark quickly once we laid down (or maybe we snoozed). We heard some deer rummaging around our tent. I yelled at them and we could hear them running away. Pretty soon, we heard some people hiking. They stopped right below our tent and contemplated going through the woods (the same conversation we had when it was lighter earlier). They decided to push on and we heard them disappear down the trail. About 10 minutes later, that damn deer was back so I yelled at him “go on, get out of here. We’re here and we’re staying!” You could hear a pin drop after that.
